Lone Knight

Dragons! Big scaly (or feathery or what have you) beasties with maws of sharp teeth and a tendency towards breathing gouts of flame, venom, or the gods know what at you. Tangling with a dragon, violently or otherwise, can be a Big Thing. A Big Thing with, depending on the dragon, a Big Payoff.

Sometimes it even comes from the dragon itself. It might not even mean slaying the beastie!

Which is good, because some dragons may be like unto gods.


So how does this work?

Here are a few possibilities.


Gifts Granted Freely

To seal a pact, to grant a boon to a loyal friend or follower or worshiper, to give a representative the power to act in their name, to demonstrate power, to sow a little chaos here and there — there’s any number of reasons a dragon might grant a token to one of the “lesser” folk. Whether reshaping an existing object or shaping one wholesale from its own flesh and spirit, the dragon creates a gift for its chosen recipient.

Many of these tokens are weapons, but not all of them. If you don’t have a form in mind, you can always roll for it:

01. Weapon
02. Weapon
03. Armour
04. Grimoire
05. Grimoire
06. Ornament
07. Instrument or Tool
08. Weapon

And also for the mark that the object bears to show its origin:

01. Carved from the dragon’s fang(s)
02. Sheathed in the dragon’s shed scales or other plumage
03. Sports one or more dragoncrysts
04. Contains dragonsblood ampoule
05. Carved from dragon’s horn or talon
06. Dyed or enameled with dragonsblood

Needless to say, all such tokens are finely made specimens. (Dragon magic can do wonderful things.) They aren’t unbreakable, however, unless granted by a dragon of divine power — which isn’t to say that even a more “mundane” token may not show some quirk such as a faint glow, slowly reshaping itself or its ornamentation over time, or slight changes of size and proportion to suit its current owner.

But what does such a token do? The possibilities are endless and boil down to the whims of the dragon in question (and the GM, of course *lol*); here are some basic ideas to get things started:

01. +2 (or more!) to attacks made with it, or while bearing it, as appropriate
02. Grants Advantage when used (or when used for a specific purpose, whether hunting sorcerers, penning the perfect sonnet, or making a first impression)
03. Absorbs incoming energies aligned with those of the dragon (fire, light, death, winter, passion …)
04. Grants (additional) protection equivalent to a specific armour type, such as chain or fullplate
05. Grants the ability to cause injuries that wound like flame, frost, venom, or other draconic energies
06. Will heal one wound, even a lethal one (or one given wound within a certain time cycle)
07. Grants an additional sense or senses (nightsight, magic sensitivity, draconic sensitivity, direction sense, tracking ability …)
08. Protects against a certain type of enchantment or affliction (flame magic, poison, paralysis, mind-tampering …), or grants Advantage against it
09. Allows the owner to take on a draconic form
10. Opens a portal to a specific location or locations
11. Will produce a certain amount of a specific substance (bread, raw metal, stormwinds, water, sunlight), or for a specific amount of time, daily
12. Allows owner to tap into the dragon’s knowledge or wisdom
13. Grants the ability to cast a specific spell or spells as if learned, once a day at maximum efficiency
14. Owner’s magic is resisted at Disadvantage by a specific type of target or targets
15. Subjects of the token (injured, touched by, marked by, they hear it, etc as appropriate) are magically “stained” by it and may be tracked by the owner
16. Grants the ability to communicate with spirits and shades of all types, or other unusual subjects, such as animals
17. Owner is always clean, groomed and generally immaculate-looking
18. Deal maximum damage with an attack involving the token (or, once a day, or once a battle; or a certain number of times a day, or after spending one’s own essence)
19. Grants unusual physical capability, such as aquatic adaptation, flight, burrowing, or resistance to a specific hostile environment
20. Increases one or two attributes by anywhere from 1 to 3

Gifts granted by a draconic token reflect the dragon bestowing the gift — a martially-inclined beast will favour weapons or armour or other such things, a reclusive scaly scholar will gift sources of knowledge or means of defense, a flamedrake a gift of fire, and so on. In many cases a token’s gift or gifts will echo the abilities of the dragon as well, be it elemental affinity, breath weapon, unique sorceries or even the dragon’s own famed feats.

Similarly, a token’s power reflects that of its creator. A young beast is not about to grant a gift loaded down with half a dozen abilities, no matter how much it wishes otherwise — and a gift from an elder dragon means the favour, and attention, of such a vast and powerful creature.

A dragon cannot be magically or physically coerced into making such a token. It must be freely given, of the dragon’s own choice. A dragon is always aware of its gifts, and may glean a vague sense of location, presence, and purpose put to with a bit of concentration.


Bloodmarked

A canny dragon knows that the lesser folk are just as covetous as any drake can be. A wise dragon keeps its gifts from falling into the hands of any random creature that may take advantage.

There’s a way around these troubles, to a certain extent. If the gifting dragon crafts its token to be bloodmarked, only those who bear its mark may make use of the token’s benefits, while all others wield a finely-made object and nothing more.

Some dragons make this an unseen, spiritual marking but most prefer to drive the point home more viscerally, as much a test of the would-be recipient’s resolve as a proper binding. Anointed with the dragon’s blood — a draft of which must also be swallowed, fresh from draconic flesh — that one is now bloodmarked and their new gift responds to the diffusion of the draconic donor’s power and will through the giftee’s body.

Whether the mark will pass on to their chosen’s descendants is a matter of draconic choice in the moment of marking. It’s generally considered courteous to let them know one way or the other (and sometimes that’s even the point).


Torn From The Fallen

But — the notes above are not quite true. There is a way to claim such treasures from a dragon against its will — or one such, at least, a single token from a single draconic source.

It’s not pleasant, and it begins with the death of the dragon in question.

Through flensing butchery, darkling alchemy, and necropotent sorceries, a dragon’s fading, fleeing power may be bound into a token made by another’s hands. All such objects are crafted from the dragon’s bones, in their entirety or nearly so, and should they bear any ornamentation at all it is of black-scorched inscriptions, bloody enamel and gory dragoncrysts.

These are not pleasant things to look upon, no matter how finely crafted they may be.

They also come with a price for tearing draconic gifts away along with the dragon’s life. All such balegifts grant at least two abilities, and are Advantage weapons against dragons, but also inflict one or more afflictions unto their owner. Some possibilities include:

01. Heal at half the usual rate
02. Constant nightmares, affecting social interactions (-2 modifier)
03. Vulnerable to a specific form of injury (an element, poison, necromantic magic, bleeding …), taking twice damage
04. Haunted by the slaughtered dragon’s restless shade
05. 1-in-6 chance of berserking in combat or under duress until subdued or there are no targets
06. Will rise as undead horror if driven to brink of death

Balegifts may also be bloodmarked, if the first owner consumes the dragon’s blood and at least a sliver of its heart or pearl. On the one hand, this will always bind the token to the owner and also their bloodline; on the other, they will never rid themselves of the acquired afflictions.


We Know Of You

Any dragon that sees a pact token — let alone a balegift — will know exactly what it is and very well may also know exactly who granted the token in the first place, simply by looking at it. This can have some immediate and terrible repercussions in the latter case!


Life And Death

Yes, it is possible for a living dragon to bestow its blessing and then later be killed and butchered to have it stolen from them.

Yes, a bestowing dragon might then become some sort of undead horror later. Such an abomination can still sense its given gifts.

Or other such interesting situations.

Just what may happen? Well, that’s hard to generalize, now isn’t it ~?

So if all your soul has been traded away (or fallen off, or been eaten, or you tore it all out, or it was burned up, or any number of possibilities really), and that didn’t just end you (because perhaps a body just might keep moving without a soul), what else might happen?

Nothing pleasant, honestly.

You might become a mindless creature, an empty husk driven by nothing but a nagging hunger and a wisp of memory. Far too many courts of aethera notables keep such wretches as guard-beasts and hunters, with the most sluggish considered suitable only for simple brute labour.

That’s a fairly common fate.

Or you might get to hold onto your sense of self. Your soul may be empty, you may feel — you may be — as fragile as a blown-glass bubble, and you may hunger for what you’ve lost, but you retain mind and will and you have choices. You can chase after what you’ve lost, for one, or you may become a scavenger — or predator — of soulstuff of your own accord, or perhaps you choose a path of agonizing asceticism, or …

Sometimes, that latter fate may even overtake one who still clings to some portions of their soul. Which does protect against becoming a husk, at least. Even if you lose the last remnants of your soul, you are assured to keep your awareness.


If you do become one of the Faded, what does that mean in practical terms?

– magic or other effects that target the soul no longer work on you, either because you no longer have one or because the scrap you have left is too withered to be affected
– you can sense the presence of loose soulstuff close by with a Psyche test (Wis check), unless it’s warded or protected in some way
– you may choose to cause soul-rending instead of physical injury when you attack a target, with a 1-in-6 chance of a recoverable fragment of soul lingering afterwards. (provided your target has a soul to begin with.)

That’s the neutral-to-positive points.

There’s more negative ones, naturally.

– first and foremost is the hunger. you are at -1 to all tests due to the emptiness inside your self, which you can abate for a time by devouring soulstuff; the more, and the more powerful, the longer you can last, from a few hours for the simplest shards to a month or more for soul portions drawn from an influential, resplendent, powerful being.
– even though your self is still intact, your memory has taken a beating; you’ve lost up to a quarter of your memories, and recalling significant events or knowledge requires a Psyche test
– your empty self is unnerving and offputting, giving your Disadvantage on social interactions unless with close confederates or those sympathetic to your plight
– you heal poorly; normal healing occurs at half the usual rate, while magical or other unusual forms fail half the time.

[there are no tests or percentages or the like given for becoming one of the Faded, for a very simple reason: some may want these fates to be a common sword to hang over soul-barterers’ heads; other may wish these to be rare birds indeed; yet others may wish to discard the idea altogether. as always, set the odds to your own discretion — and make sure everyone playing is equally comfortable with whatever is decided.]

Needless to say, the denizens of the Manifold Palaces are seldom pleased to find one of the Faded loose in their domains …

Shamelessly inspired by having been digging at a venerable jrpg for months upon months at this point (lol), here are ten wee schools of magic, eight spells each.

There was some tweaking involved in setting these out, which was no surprise; magic doesn’t need as much “utility” in a jrpg. Or, I suppose, tabletop could use slightly more variety than “how to smite critters faster while making sure they they don’t smite you”, ha. Nonetheless, I think I kept the categories intact and adapted some key spells along the way.

Spells are all short and to the point, meant for for pocketrpg / The Black Hack / Knave / Cairn / similar such games, but with a detail or three could be added elsewhere without too much fuss, I imagine —
 

Opposing Schools: Eight of the ten have opposing schools, as follows:

Wind <-> Earth

Flame <-> Water

Light <-> Darkness

Mirage <-> Sorcery

Spirit and Wickedness do not oppose, despite being a “leftover pair”, and can be freely combined.
 

 

Air

01. Windrazor: Focused blast of air does 1d6 damage.
02. Windcalling: Summons an air elemental [Average] to act on behalf of the summoner. 10 min. + 10 min./Essence spent.
03. Unseen Wings: Target gains ability to fly. 1d4 hrs.
04. Barrier Breeze: Enveloping cocoon of winds blocks 4 airborne attacks. 10 min.
05. Windwhisper: Message up to 5 min. long travels to chosen recipient on a tiny whispering breeze.
06. Tempest: 2d4 targets are struck by lightning and stormwinds for 1d4 damage.
07. Sparktouch: Imbues weapon with lightning; +1 damage, counts as lightning/wind damage. 5 turns.
08. Storm Frenzy: Speed of the storm grants two actions/turn. 2d6 turns. 1 Ess.

Earth

01. Weight of Stone: Target acts every second turn, moves at 1/2 speed. 2d4 minutes.
02. Calcify: Target turns to stone. 2 Essence.
03. Crystal Carapace: Increase Armour Points by 2. 1 hr.
04. Earthcalling: Summons an earth elemental [Average] to act on behalf of the summoner. 10 min. + 10 min./Essence spent.
05. Draw From The Earth: Regenerate 1 Essence/hr for 8 hrs; “phantom” Essence is lost from injury first, cannot fuel magic, and is lost when duration ends.
06. Diamond Edge: Next physical attack does max damage. 1 Essence.
07. Earthhome: Raises earth and stone shelter for up to 6 individuals. 8 hrs.
08. Bounty: Conjures basic foodstuffs for one meal. (stops working for individual after 1d4 days unless they get mundane food.)

Flame

01. Flamegout: Ribbon of flame does 1d6+1 damage.
02. Hearthfires: Subject is immune to cold damage for 1 hr, or ambient warmth is created in Nearby radius. 2d4 hrs.
03. Firetouch: Imbues weapon with fire energy; +1 damage, counts as flame damage. 10 min.
04. Coronal Coronet: Flame aura deals 1d3 fire damage to next 2 sources of injury. 1 hr or until triggered.
05. Flamecalling: Summons a fire elemental [Average] to act on behalf of summoner. 10 min. + 10 min./Essence spent.
06. Immolation: 1d6 fire damage to all within Nearby range. 1 Essence.
07. Memory of Ashes: Instantly incinerate a target. 2 Essence.
08. Burnfever: Heals subject of illness, mundane or magical.

Water

01. Torrent: Blast of water does 1d6 damage.
02. Wavecalling: Summons a water elemental [Average] to act on behalf of summoner. 10 min. + 10 min./Essence spent.
03. Mire: Waterlogs area up to Nearby range, slowing physical actions to every other turn. 2d8 turns. 1 Essence.
04. Purifying Font: Cleanses one subject of poison, or renders tainted supplies edible/drinkable.
05. Glacial: Ice shards inflict 1d6 damage to all in Nearby range. 1 Essence.
06. Frostmantle: Subject is immune to heat damage for 1 hr, or ambient coolness is created in Nearby radius. 2d4 hrs.
07. Vital Rain: Conjures healing waters, 1d4 Essence.
08. Underwave: Breathe water, swim as easily as walking. 4 hrs.

Light

01. Heartlight: Remove mental or emotional duress and debuffs from target, or grant +1 to Psyche to resist next such influence.
02. Day’s Truth: Sense deliberate lies or obfuscations. 10 min.
03. Lantern: Create light (of chosen colour) as strong as a lantern, either stationary or following target. 6 hrs.
04. Suntouched: Heal 1d4+1 Essence.
05. Starburst: Deal 1d4+1 light damage.
06. Moonblade: Summon weapon of pale glittering light; Advantage on attacks, 1d8+1 damage, lasts 4 turns. 2 Essence.
07. Revelation: Cures subject of blindness, paralysis, and similar restrictions.
08. Clarity: Waves of blinding light deal 1d6 damage to 2d8 targets. 1 Essence.

Darkness

01. Shadowbind: Paralyzes target with shadowy coils. 2d4 turns.
02. Afraid Of The Dark: 1d4 subjects are struck with terror and try to flee.
03. Black Curtain: Cloaks Nearby area in darkness. 6 hrs.
04. Deny The Light: Target is blinded. 2d4 hrs, or until dispelled/treated if 1 Essence spent.
05. Darkblade: Summon weapon of utter darkness; Advantage on attacks, 1d8+1 damage, lasts 4 turns. 2 Essence.
06. Despair: Inflicts Disadvantage on target’s next test.
07. Shadowpuppet: Turn target’s shadow against them; will attack target as [Average] antagonist, dealing 1d4 damage if defeated. 6 turns.
08. Shadowalk: Step into darkness, come out in another shadow or darkness up to Far Away range. 1 Essence.

Mirage

01. Unseen Passage: Subject turns invisible. 2d8 min.
02. Dreamtime: Send 2d4 targets to sleep. 1 hr or until woken up.
03. Misdirection: Subject will choose wrong target for own actions, believing choice correct, for next 3 actions.
04. Phantasm: Create illusionary object or location, up to size of large chamber. 4 hrs.
05. Masque: Change outward appearance or create intangible copy of subject. 2 hrs. or until masque is touched.
06. Daze: Target is confused and wanders aimlessly. 5 min.
07. Piercing Unreality: Dispel illusions, enchantments, magical barriers.
08. Labyrinth: Target is convinced they are trapped in a maze, left in fugue state. 1 Essence.

Sorcery

01. Mystic Bolt: Bolt of energy deals 1d3 damage, no save.
02. Sorcerer’s Shawl: Subject is cloaked in magic field that absorbs 8 Essence of damage before dissipating.
03. Powerfont: Boost damage from an ally’s next spell by half again, or double the duration of their non-battle spell. 1 Essence.
04. Reading The Past: Touch an object, discover last purposes and owner.
05. Counterspell: Shuts down next incoming magic; can undo magic just cast (current or previous turn) for 1 Essence.
06. Energy Storm: Deals 1d3 damage to all in Nearby range, no save.
07. Baneward: Create magic trap that does 1d4 damage when triggered. 24 hrs.
08. Sorcerer’s Sight: Choose to sense magic, illusions, or spirits. 10 min.

Spirit

01. A Burden Shared: Take on some or all of another’s injuries.
02. Insight: Grants Advantage on next test.
03. Weight Of A Soul: Immobilize 1d6+1 targets. 1d4 turns.
04. Castigate: Target becomes non-hostile (unless Psyche test is successful; then are probably enraged).
05. Warding: Declare area up to Nearby range impassable by specific entity or creature type. 1 Essence. 8 hrs.
06. Soulflame: 1d10 damage to target up to Far Away, no save. 2 Essence.
07. Heartreading: Discern subject’s intentions in a general sense (friendly, suspicious, etc).
08. Crucible: Halve incoming damage. 1 Essence. 4 turns.

Wickedness

01. Dead Walking: Animate corpse or skeleton; uses deceased’s attributes.
02. Crawling Blight: Poisons target, 1d4 damage/turn. 1 Essence. 6 turns.
03. Curse of Spite: Halves target’s attributes. 1 hr. (2 Essence: until dispelled)
04. Soul Siphon: Inflict 1d6 damage on target, gaining damage dealt as Essence.
05. Wracking: Stun 2d6 targets for one turn.
06. Blackened Wounds: Next attack on subject will continue to bleed, 1 Essence/turn, until treated.
07. Bleak Marionette: Target comes under caster’s control; takes 1 damage/min. until out of Essence or control is lifted/broken.
08. Nadir: All non-Wickedness magic Nearby requires +1 Essence surcharge. 2 Essence. 1 day.

For the first time in aeons, I’m going to try to tackle entries for RPGaDay whee ~

Not “about” rpgs, mind you, because I’m bad at that and it raises my stress levels when I don’t have Opinions[tm] on a lot of things. Instead I’m going to make a tweet-sized entry for each and post them on Twitter, system-agnostic or geared towards the Jewel Moons/LES “tinyrpg” and also compile them here in this post. At the end, if I’ve done enough, I’ll put them in a little pocketmod or zine :D

So, without further ado I suppose —

01. Beginning

Tracer Of Voices: Rested on a copy of a text (on any surface, paper to silk to stone to flesh), this writing tablet of smoky quartz and golden wax will display the original version of that text, no matter how far back in time it may have existed.

02. Change

Crafter’s Plasm: A hand-sized drop of primordium, encased in a shell of adamant glass, which will take the shape of any tool (or set thereof) small enough to be wielded in one hand. If the shell is broken, the wielder takes on a change to their form.

03. Thread

* Plucking Red Threads: Discern general details of the most important person for target within visual range, as well as individual’s location.
* Gateway Weaving: Nearly-invisible pattern holds fast any who try to cross through door or gateway. 4 hrs.

04. Vision

All-Eye Wings: Place a drop of your blood on the tongue of this tiny stone bird and it takes flight, showing you what it sees.

Lapis Lazuli: magic
Cairngorm: shades
Serpentine: living creatures
Carbuncle: machina
Opal: primal flux
Topaz: high emotion

05. Tribute

Parter Of Veils: A bowl of unassuming brown-slip ceramic, large enough to need cradling in both hands. If a letter is written to the dearly departed along the inside, and gifts of food and trifles honestly made, at night the deceased will visit.

06. Forest

Moongrove Of A Million Spirits: Trunks of silver-green bamboo soar overhead, rustling faintly in the lack of wind; and every year the Moongrove spreads.
And every slim shaft contains milky opals in its nodes; every opal, a ghost drawn from the soil …

07. Couple

Jackals Of Frost And Flame [Average antagonists]
– damage aura (fire/ice), immunity (fire/ice)
– regeneration (2 Essence/turn)
– Counterspell
These lean and long-legged elemental canines are always seen in pairs and are said to purge sins — and sinners.

08. Shade

* Relieving Canopy: phantom shadowsilk protects from effects of bright light, sunlight, heat. 4 hrs.
* Umbral Porter: subject transports up to twice body weight in objects inside own shadow. 8 hrs.
* Shadowbarb: 1d4 damage, blind 2 hrs + until healed

09. Light

* Dead Illumination: pale light soothes and pleases 1d6 unliving, improving reaction towards caster.
* I See!: recieve answer to one short (10 words or less) question or problem.
* Tiy’s Candle: floating orb remains unseen until danger threatens. 4 hrs.

10. Want

Fell-Wings Revelation: A palm-sized fat teardrop of amber-red, transparent, and warm to the touch, the Revelation shows in its depths what its holder wishes for more than anything else.

No matter what it is.

No matter if they will admit what it is.

11. Stack

The Nacreous Towers: This vale of towering pillars — of uncountable small, shelly, ancient remnants — have strange power yet. Power to change anything tucked into their crevices into something new; to whisper fossil’d secrets, if a shell is swallowed.

12. Message

Tailwind: Riders and other couriers more than happy to carry samizdat right along with more mundane string-sealed parchment packets, wax jars and folded letters. By saddle, hoof, fin and wing, Tailwind can get where folks on the ground need them to go.

13. Rest

Wayfinding: On lonely roads, a traveler may chance on a wayfinding — a small cottage of weathered wood. The host is gracious, so long as no mention is made of silvery hooves.

In the morning the wayfinding is gone, and a moon-mark remains on the flesh.

14. Banner

Oriflamme Of The Heart-Sapphire: Long-lost and legendary, cut from darkest skyvelvet and embroidered with silks drawn from the promises of all who swore to follow the Heart’s teachings. Its discoverer could claim much, from Hearthold to the star-blades.

15. Frame

Phantom Barrier Adornment: Not so much a door or window casing as the series of delicate inscriptions placed on it, barring the entry of inclement weather or any creature smaller than a cat unless carried inside. Even a large bay may be so encircled.

 

16. Dramatic 

Nightcaper [Average antagonist] 
- Psyche increase 
- vulnerability: silver, wine 
- Captive Audience 
Sometimes traveling entertainers don't die pleasantly, and their bright tattered remnants roam in search of the life -- and song -- they've lost.

17. Comfort

What-You-Need: Before you pluck this silvery-grey small flower without knowing what will happen; the bloom whispers it into your mind. An unseen anima rises, to manifest as whatever best suits in your time of trial; a hug, warmth, soothing words …

18. Meet

Coralheart: Odd little scallops, with thick shells of rose-to-carmine, ridged and heart-shaped; placed on forehead or throat, a shell will project a speaking image of you to whoever has the matching half. Some like to do this just to see who answers.

19. Tower

Iunia: A massive, striated, azure shard stabbing itself towards heaven, surrounded by the remnants of four others, their gilded spires splintered.

Every sixth dawn, a door irises open at Iunia’s base.

Every fourth, thunder like metal wings from within.

20. Investigate

Recorders: Sometimes primordia seeps, leaving a cyst deep underground. Those cysts can grow, spawning strange growths and hollows filled with wondrous horrors linked to the cystseed.

When the dungeon breaches the surface, Recorders move in.

21. Push

Marbolete: Over-fertilization, a bit of ill-luck, and sweetfields and water meadows may find their crops thinned out and heaved high by impossibly large and stocky, stone-dense mushrooms.

But, hollowed out, marboletes do make grand little cottages …

22. Rare 

Sky-Merled Martikhoras [Major antagonist] 
- Earthbolt (1d8 ranged, 1/2 rounds) 
- cloudform 
- venom 2 Ess./turn 
When storm and stone align, the heights spawn not a common martikhoras, but a beast whose emerald craggy hide is spangled white and azure.

23. Edge

Water Knives: Ground from mussel or abalone or spiny oyster, a water knife is a blunt oval blade of polished nacre, gripped between thumb and forefinger. Run lightly along a wound, the knife dissolves, washing away injury (up to 2 Ess.) and poison both.

24. Humour

Nanba’s Icepick: A decrepit-looking thing, its cherrywood grip scratched and pockmarked and the actual pick freckled with tiny rust spots, the tip slightly out of true. But with a touch to one’s skin, one learns just how to break any ice with goodwill.

25. Lever

Saint Rhodon’s Grace: The snapped shaft of the worn blackthorn prybar used by the custodian of the bonehall to free the jeweled saint from their cella before the wyldfires collapsed the structure. Holding Grace aloft wards off flames and the wicked dead.

26. Strange

Lily-Bulb Conveying: There are those who know how to place a message of no more than five breaths into a star lily; and since these lilies spread by great thin runners, and spawn many bulbs, the word can creep.

Grapevines are considered unreliable.

27. Favour

Reciprocal: When someone has done a great service, but it’s not the time nor the place for one to repay, one can draw forth a reciprocal to offer instead — a slightly-flattened, golden, bubbled orb. When held and wished on, it calls one to service.

28. Close

Seal-Twice: Affixed to any correspondence, this evening-blue wax contains a second missive mystically encoded into its substance. To release, the seal must be removed and then attached to a suitably folded, blank document; if broken, all is lost.

29. Ride 

- Proper Carriage: A mount's tack/harness now fits with maximum comfort, 6 hrs 
- Grey Invitation: Allow a deceased soul to inhabit you, sharing skills 
- Irisride: Reach out to the spirit of an extant rainbow and be carried to any place the bow extends over

30. Portal

Ringwalk: Not a place or an object but a process, most commonly associated with (and taught by) the loose guild of the same name; with the knowledge of the right glyphs, and the ability to trace them, a Ring may be drawn to step into another world …

31. Experience

Bone-Wisdom Distillation: At times, the sum of a life’s lessons and knowledge — and more rarefied elements still — concentrate within a single, crystallized bit of a corpse’s skeleton. Liquefy and consume in blood or wine or both, and gain all.

When I put Nine Black Jewel Moons together, I asked my flatmate if there were any other kind of implied setting I might tinker with; their answer is best summarized as “Legend Of The 5 Rings, but with more yokai and maybe more not!Japan fantasy”.

I tossed around the idea along with the other things I’ve herded cats around for, since another reskin would be fairly straightforward.  The upheaval around FFG’s rpg department in the tail end of last year gave me a bit of a jolt (and prompted the silliness of the “family name” tables in the finished PocketMod) … and then the fantasy!Japan collided with my budding idea of trying to make settings or adventures of various scopes to also fit the format, and months later here we are.

Steel Blossom Dreams needs Nine Black Jewel Moons, as the rules are in that PocketMod, and I’ve tried to use as many English-equivalent terms as possible to cut down on explanations in a very limited space; this is most obvious in the antagonist lists (so, “sickle weasel” instead of “kamaitachi”, for example).  Arguably by the nature of the beast it would be easy to take the basicness of SBD and have it all look like any fantasy you might like, I suppose.

Six Swords Rising is a tiny setting overview that is rules-free and, technically, can work with whatever you want to use it with.

Steel Blossom Dreams

Six Swords Rising

I’m sort of considering trying to moosh the rules portions (+ magic talents and such) from NBJM and these two iterations together into a little zine thing, but I haven’t decided yet.  It’d probably still be pretty bare-bones, but all the parts would be in one place?

In the summer, I put together a fantasy minirpg inspired by The Black Hack, Wander, Microlite20, Searchers Of The Unknown, and such — and tried to imply a setting in the process — while squeezing it into a PocketMod.

Then I reskinned it into a cyberpunk version, and posted both of them on Twitter for download.

Twitter being what it is, though, and with continued hopes that I might make PocketMod companions for these (or even another reskin, if I can talk myself into it), I offer GoogleDrive links here:

Nine Black Jewel Moons

Burning Neon Skies